Can any one identify this? Chinese? Japanese?

[Kimovitzh]

Hi.
My aunt got this odd thing, and we can't seem to find out what it is, and we are VERY curious!

There are some sort of text on the front, I don't know if it's chinese, japanese or what ever.

On the back side there are these squares.

Te? Tobacco? Please help if you can

/Kimo

 

[spinnerlys]

It seems, whatever image hosting service you have used, does not allow embedding, only linking, though your links are badly formatted.
Maybe try TinyPic to embed the images here, but resize them to a smaller size with 800 to 1000 pixel width.

How to Use Preview for Basic Image Editing: Crop, Rotate and Resize
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Picture 1: http://cl.ly/02533f482bacf1977ba7
Picture 2: http://cl.ly/8ea568a9dc8c7a242287
Picture 3: http://cl.ly/03e8f70c55367cb52088

Btw, proper VBB linking looks like this.

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Your links look like this.

[plain][URL="Link"]http://cl.ly/02533f482bacf1977ba7[/URL][/plain]

And the result is this: http://cl.ly/02533f482bacf1977ba7

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[dXTC]

Comparing this to charts of both traditional Chinese characters and Japanese kanji, I'd venture to guess that the characters are Chinese.

As for what it says or what it means, I have no idea.

You can rule out Korean, though.

 

[snberk103]

Chinese, is my opinion. Caveat, though. I'm not Asian, though I have lived several years in Hong Kong and Singapore. In your photos, the middle image (with the text), the top line, far right character - looks like a box with a vertical line through it - is iirc the character for 'China'.

Hope this helps.

 

[dXTC]

Chinese, is my opinion. Caveat, though. I'm not Asian, though I have lived several years in Hong Kong and Singapore. In your photos, the middle image (with the text), the top line, far right character - looks like a box with a vertical line through it - is iirc the character for 'China'.

Hope this helps.

Yes, that character is the radical that is roughly pronounced "zhong". As Chinese speakers call their country "zhong guo" and their language "zhong wen", snberk103's definitely onto something.

 

[TheOnlyJon]

It's in Traditional Chinese and written from right -> left, so the right way round, it'll read:
中國茶業公司
趙李橋磚茶廠製造

Basically this just seems to be a label for a tea company. I'll try my best to translate it...

中國[China]茶[Tea]業[Industry]公司[Company] --> Chinese Tea Company

趙李橋[Zhao Li Qiao]磚[Brick]茶[Tea](I'm not sure how to translate this.. it's a type of tea that comes compressed much like a 'brick') 廠[Factory]製造[Manufactured] --> Manufactured by Zhao Li Qiao Tea Factory

 

[fr4c]

Not bad Jon! You're right it's in traditional Chinese, and is indeed some sort of container for tea.

 

[phas3]

it's actually artifacts from the Dharma Initiative in the early 70s

 

[Kimovitzh]

It's in Traditional Chinese and written from right -> left, so the right way round, it'll read:
中國茶業公司
趙李橋磚茶廠製造

Basically this just seems to be a label for a tea company. I'll try my best to translate it...

中國[China]茶[Tea]業[Industry]公司[Company] --> Chinese Tea Company

趙李橋[Zhao Li Qiao]磚[Brick]茶[Tea](I'm not sure how to translate this.. it's a type of tea that comes compressed much like a 'brick') 廠[Factory]製造[Manufactured] --> Manufactured by Zhao Li Qiao Tea Factory

WOW! Thank you! !!

A brick of tea

 

[TKEik683]

The type of aged tea is called Pu-Erh, assuming that is what it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu-erh_tea

It is the only type of aged tea that I know of and is different than normal tea.

I love the stuff =]

 

[wywern209]

those "knot" things in the last picture i believe is from tibetan / indian mythology and is the irremovable knot or something. It can only be undone by a God or something.

 

[HoweyDHS]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_brick

a link from Wikipedia. Hope it helps.

I am a Malaysian Chinese but never knew about its existence though.

 

[pagansoul]

Back in the old days (and in some places it still is happening in Asia) they used tea as money. When traveling it was easier to press tea leaves into a brick with scoring to make breaking into pieces in the back and an imprint of the company logo and a picture of some kind on the front. You can still buy these in International Importers stores and tea houses. Even Teavana sometimes has them. Don't get it wet . Some people display them like plates in America on a shelf.